A woman who accidentally killed her sister during a roadside argument and then fled the scene has been complaining about her lot in life since the incident.
Asyai Luk, now 24, was charged with dangerous driving causing death and failing to stop and assist over the November 2022 hit-and-run in Sunshine, in Melbourne’s west.
But a favorable plea deal could allow him to walk free without even a criminal conviction.
The learner driver appeared in Victoria’s County Court on Monday for a pre-sentence hearing.
Luk was behind the wheel when his sister, Anong Luk, 24, was dragged and trapped between two vehicles in Sunshine.
Footage captured from across the road and seen by Daily Mail Australia showed the shocking moment Anong crashed into a vehicle parked on the street.
She is seen immediately jumping to her feet, apparently unharmed, before running across the street where she collapsed and died.
Her younger sister is understood to have believed she was not seriously injured in the incident and drove away unaware that she was seriously injured.
Asyai Luk (pictured outside court on Monday) is alleged to have been driving a jeep and sped off as Anong Luk tried to get in. He was facing trial before the prosecution backed down.
Anong Luk (pictured), 24, died when she was trapped between two cars in what was initially treated as a suspected hit-and-run.
In June, Luk pleaded guilty to summary charges of careless driving and driving as a learner without an experienced adult driver.
On Monday, his attorney Kyle McDonald did everything he could to convince Judge Kellie Blair that his client not only did not deserve a sentence, but that he should not be fined either.
In a letter of plea written to the judge, Luk complained of the shame and anxiety he had experienced in his local community due to media reports on the matter.
She told the judge the reaction to the reports had been “devastating” and she was now suffering from insomnia, fear, loss of appetite and struggling to concentrate.
It also affected her socially, she complained.
Crown prosecutor Peter Pickering said such complaints were common among those facing justice for crimes they had committed.
“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised,” he said. “This shows the consequences for her.”
The matter was set to go to trial before prosecutors dropped most of the charges against Luk.
It remains unclear why the prosecution decided to withdraw its case just before the trial.
Asyai Luk faced a media storm when he left the County Court in Victoria in June with his lawyer George Balot (left)
Asyai Lu pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor traffic offenses that should allow her to get away with just a fine.
The court heard that Luk had no business being behind the wheel without an experienced supervisor.
Just a few months earlier, she had been suspended from driving for three months after being caught driving more than 25 km/h over the speed limit.
The day her sister died, she had been driving unattended for hours.
In asking for his client to be released on bail for good behaviour and without conviction, Mr McDonald said the now single mother could struggle to find work if a conviction is recorded.
He reiterated his client’s claims that she had suffered from the media attention and argued that the general public would “get the message” not to do what she had done by letting her out of court on bail.
“The court can achieve the purpose of sentencing with a bond of good conduct,” he said.
But Mr Pickering said anything other than a conviction would send the wrong message to future drivers with similar intentions.
“People should see this as a warning,” he said.
Judge Blair said she needed time to reflect on her sentence, which she will hand down on Wednesday.
The black car allegedly dragged Anong Luk along High Street before his head hit the front bumper bar of a white Jeep (pictured) parked nearby.
Outside court in June, Luk’s lawyer George Balot described the incident as a shocking family tragedy.
“This tragic incident has weighed heavily on my client, her mother and siblings for nearly two years,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
“After extensive legal filings and negotiations with the prosecution, my client has been vindicated for the death of her sister. My client and her loving mother continue to grieve the loss of her sister Gul.”
In August, Luk’s previous lawyer had argued that charges against his client should be dropped because the incident was a “freak event” and an accident that neither sister could have foreseen.
“She got caught in the door unexpectedly,” defense attorney Peter Morrissey said at the time.
But prosecutors argued that the woman should be sent to trial because the 24-year-old died in the context of a heated argument and Luk fled the scene with the car door open.
Both sides had different interpretations of the videos of the scene.
Judge Brett Sonnet found the videos were “subject to different interpretations” and ruled that Luk should stand trial.
“Miss Luk, you will be required to appear before the County Court,” he then told the court.
The black SUV (pictured) was captured on CCTV driving along High Street after the collision.
The magistrates’ court had heard that Anong, known as Gol, had tried to get out of the vehicle driven by her sister when the black SUV accelerated and dragged the victim along the road before crushing her against a parked Jeep.
The two sisters had been involved in a verbal and physical altercation in the car before Luk went outside to seek help from residents, the court heard.
“The defendant returned to the driver’s side of the vehicle and continued a verbal altercation with his sister,” the prosecutor then alleged in court.
The court heard the sister was “ejected” from the car and tried to get back into the vehicle in a “distressed” state when Luk allegedly ran away.
The vehicle traveled a short distance before colliding with a white Nossan Patrol parked nearby.
Anong was taken to Royal Melbourne Hospital with serious head injuries but later died.
The girls’ mother, Aleza Gwit, said her eldest daughter, Gol, “was always there for me, asking me how I was and saying ‘Mom, I love you’ or ‘I washed your dishes’ just to make me happy.”
“She (Luk) called me like she was my mum, she (her sister) got out of the car and was angry… I don’t know exactly what happened,” Ms Gwit told Nine News.
